A San Jose man was charged with murder Monday for allegedly killing a woman while driving drunk and in the wrong direction on a Sunnyvale street last week, prosecutors said.
Brian Burke, 34, allegedly fatally injured Salome Cigarrero Guevara, 52, who was driving home from her job at Denny’s on April 9, according to a news release from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.
“More than 10,000 people die in drunk driving incidents every year in this country,” said District Attorney Jeff Rosen in the news release. “Not one of them was what I would ever call an accident. Every single one was an avoidable criminal tragedy, and in this case – a murder.”
Burke was driving a Ford F-150 around 11:55 p.m. near Central Expressway and Commercial Street when he struck Guevara’s Jeep Compass head-on, prosecutors said.
When officers arrived on the scene, they found Guevara in the front seat of her vehicle, which had sustained “major front-end damage,” prosecutors said. Authorities removed her from her vehicle, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Guevara, a Mountain View resident, was publicly identified Wednesday by the Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office.
Burke was found in the front seat of his vehicle, which also suffered damage to the front, prosecutors added.
Burke appeared in court for his arraignment Monday, prosecutors said. He remains in custody without bail, and will next appear in court June 2.